Ring’s Reflections
by Bob Ring
Key Events to Arizona Statehood
I’ve been brushing up on early Arizona history so I can better appreciate the big
milestone next Tuesday – Arizona’s 100th birthday as a state. Here are what I think are
the most important events leading up to Arizona statehood.
Explorers/Missionaries/Pathfinders
Spanish explorers and missionaries first alerted the world to Arizona. From 1540 to 1542
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado made the first systematic exploration of the Southwest,
including Arizona. The first non-natives to live in Arizona were Franciscan missionaries
from Santa Fe New Mexico who tried to establish missions in northeastern Arizona near
the Hopi mesas in 1629, but were driven out by the Hopi 50 years later. In the 1690s
Father Eusebio Francisco Kino established successful missions along southern Arizona’s
Santa Cruz River.
Fur traders were the first Americans in Arizona beginning in the 1820s. These mountain
men became guides for the U.S. Army, crossing Arizona on the way to California during
the War with Mexico that began in 1846.
Immediately after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo ended the War in 1848, with the U.S
gaining the part of Arizona north of the Gila River, Army engineers began surveys in
Arizona for a possible transcontinental railroad. They were also trying to define the
southern boundary for the Gadsden Purchase, ratified in 1854, in which the U.S. bought
from Mexico the part of Arizona south of the Gila River.
After the start of the California Gold Rush in 1848, Arizona’s Gila Trail became one of
the main routes to the California gold fields. Thousands of 49ers also used southern trails
along the Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers.
In 1869 Major John Wesley Powell led the first Colorado River expedition through the
Grand Canyon. After a second expedition in 1873, Powell published his notes illustrated
with Thomas Moran engravings that excited the American public about Arizona’s natural
beauty.
Ranching
Cattle ranching started early in Arizona and became our longest lived industry. Stock
raising began in the 1690s when Father Kino brought cattle with him from Mexico to
found his missions. Spanish cattle ranching began in earnest in the 1730s in the Santa
Cruz Valley as demand for beef grew along with the population. Following the end of
the American Civil War in 1865, large-scale ranches developed with an influx of cattle
from overgrazed pastures in Texas.
Mining
Mining got off to a slow start in Arizona, but steadily grew to become the dominant
Arizona business. In 1736 the discovery of silver just below the current border with
Mexico drew prospective miners northward into southern Arizona. Copper was first
discovered at Ajo in 1854. Gold was first found near Yuma in 1858 and in the Bradshaw
Mountains and around Wickenburg in 1863.
The legendary town of Tombstone was founded in 1879 around a huge silver strike in
1877. Bisbee started on a path to become the queen of the copper camps in 1880, after
the discovery of copper there in 1877.
Copper emerged as the most important mineral to the economy of Arizona in places like
Bisbee, Jerome, Clifton, Globe, and Miami.
Indian Wars
Arizona’s Native Americans fought long and hard to preserve their way of life. In 1751
Pima Indians revolted in south-central Arizona against repeated harsh treatment by Jesuit
missionaries. In 1781 Yuma tribes rose up against Spanish soldiers for damaging their
farmlands and severe disciplinary treatment.
The Apache vigorously fought Spanish, Mexican, and American encroachment into their
homeland for over 300 years, until 1886 when Geronimo finally surrendered.
The greatest single tragedy occurred in 1864 when 8,000 Navajos, who because of
unsatisfactory treaty negotiations, were rounded up by the U.S. Army and marched 450
miles in the dead of winter to a reservation in eastern New Mexico for a four-year
confinement, with as many as 2,000 dying of cold, disease and starvation.
Transportation
Regular cross-Arizona stagecoach service for mail and passengers since 1858 and the
completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific Railroad across southern Arizona in
1881, and then the Atlanta & Pacific Railroad across northern Arizona in 1883,
dramatically increased the number of people and amount of freight that could be carried
in Arizona. For the first time heavy mining equipment could be brought in, ranching
expanded rapidly along the rail routes, and suddenly settlers were able to reach Arizona
in large numbers.
The joining of the Arizona and New Mexico Railroad with the Sonora Railway in
Nogales in 1882 opened Arizona’s borderland to expanded ranching, mining, and
business development, plus set the stage for increased interaction between Arizona and
Mexico.
People also began coming to Arizona for vacations and to enjoy the fabulous climate.
Agriculture
Easier access to land and the ability to furnish plentiful water transformed the Arizona
desert and created new agricultural industries. The Desert Land Act of 1877 provided
640 acres to settlers who irrigated the land, stirring great interest in improving irrigation
methods. The Salt River Project began in 1903 as the nation's first water-management
project of dams and canals. The completion of Roosevelt Dam in 1911 harnessed Salt
River Valley water and led to the rapid expansion of citrus and cotton industries in
central Arizona.
Geopolitical
The evolution of Arizona towns from small fortresses, mining camps, and farming
communities to significant cities helped prepare Arizona to join the U.S. Tubac was the
first Spanish presidio (fortress) in Arizona, founded in 1752 in reaction to the Pima
revolt. That presidio was relocated to Tucson in 1775 in proximity to the flourishing San
Xavier del Bac mission. Almost a century later in 1868, Phoenix began as a farming
community, looking for a manageable source of water.
The path to Arizona statehood was long and filled with challenges. Following the
Mexican-American War, in 1850 the New Mexico territory, which at the time included
northern Arizona, was added to the U.S. Then in 1863, Arizona, including the portion
added by the Gadsden Purchase, became a separate U.S. territory. In 1906 Arizona
rejected a proposal for joint (combined) statehood with New Mexico. In 1911 President
Taft disapproved Arizona statehood due to a provision in the new constitution that
permitted recall of judges. Finally, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1912, with the
offending provision removed, President Taft signed the documents admitting Arizona as
the 48th state.
A good source for much of this material is the new book by Jim Turner, Arizona: A
Celebration of the Grand Canyon State. The comprehensive book incorporates the
author’s years of research as Outreach Historian for the Arizona Historical Society, is a
delightful read – with cogent stories and humor, and contains the most diverse collection
of historic photographs and supporting artwork that I have seen in one book on Arizona
history.
President William Howard Taft signed Arizona’s
statehood papers on February 14, 1912.
(Courtesy of nps.gov)